Asked by: Laura Smith (Labour - Crewe and Nantwich)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether the Government's planned Breathing Space scheme will include a full 12-month freeze on interest, charges and debt collection activity.
Answered by Steve Barclay
The Government committed in its manifesto to establish a breathing space for heavily indebted consumers which would freeze interest, charges and further enforcement action for up to six weeks.
The Government is committed to taking the proposals forward as per its manifesto commitment, and is actively consulting on the policy design with stakeholders.
Asked by: Laura Smith (Labour - Crewe and Nantwich)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps he has taken to make consumer markets operate more fairly to reduce the costs of essential household items.
Answered by John Glen
Competitive markets are the best way of delivering value and choice for consumers. Autumn Budget 2017 announced more resources for the Competition and Markets Authority to enable them to take more cases against companies who are not competing fairly. The government is also taking specific action to ensure that financial services markets work for consumers. For example, to improve access to affordable sources of credit, the government is increasing the number of potential members that a credit union serving a local area can have from 2 to 3 million.
The forthcoming Consumer Green Paper will set out the government’s broader approach to ensuring that markets are working well for consumers and businesses.
Where it can, the government is also taking direct action to help families with the cost of essential items. For example, the government has extended the fuel duty freeze for the eighth year. This freeze has saved the average car driver £850 over the last eight years compared to what they would have been paying under the pre-2010 escalator plans.
Asked by: Laura Smith (Labour - Crewe and Nantwich)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he plans to implement a duty on regulators to identify vulnerable customers within the finance industry.
Answered by John Glen
The government believes that the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) existing objectives to protect consumers and to promote effective competition are sufficient to safeguard the interests of vulnerable consumers. The government therefore sees no need to legislate to impose an additional duty on the FCA.
In November 2017, the FCA published their Future Approach to Consumers Paper. One of the core ideas within this Paper is “Regulating for Vulnerable Consumers”. The FCA expects firms to pay attention to possible indicators of vulnerability and have policies in place to deal with consumers where those indicators suggests they may be at greater risk of harm.
Asked by: Laura Smith (Labour - Crewe and Nantwich)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the level of incidences of collusion in the insurance industry between providers of home and contents insurance.
Answered by Steve Barclay
The government is committed to ensuring that the home insurance industry operates on a fair and competitive basis. The government works closely with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). Both CMA and FCA have significant powers to deal with anti-competitive behavior. The government is confident that both regulators are effective in their assessment of the practices of the providers of home and contents insurance.